Case Number 24548

HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Paranoiac. An enchanting word, so civilized, so full of possibilities.

Opening Statement

Although, as personal taste goes, I prefer the gaudy excess of his
protégé, Dario Argento, there is no doubt that Mario Bava (Lisa and
the Devil) is the first and greatest master of Italian horror. His brilliant
work isn't as well-represented in the DVD department, but I'm surprised to
realize that this marks the first review of his work that I've done for the site
(I guess all those poor snap-case Image releases came out before I started).
Lucky for me, Image Entertainment has begun releasing their collection onto
Blu-ray, starting for me with Hatchet for the Honeymoon.

Facts of the Case

Fashion photographer John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth, Fury in
Marrakesh) seems to have it all; a thriving business teeming with gorgeous
models, a huge and beautiful mansion, everything a swarthy seventies man could
desire. There's only one problem: he's a psychotic murderer with a taste for the
blood of new brides. He's taken plenty of lives, but when he finally dispatches
his angry, neurotic wife Mildred (Laura Betti, Teorema), things start to
go downhill. The cops seem onto him and he has a new model (Dagmar Lassander,
The House by the Cemetery) who knows too much for her own good. It looks
like it's time to bring out the hatchet, but can he get it done before he is
caught?

The Evidence

In 1970, when Bava returned to the giallo, a genre he almost single-handedly
created, he came with a twist. Minus the mystery aspects common in these
features, everything starts the way one would expect. A black-gloved hand
reaches out to a train door, when the perspective turns down the corridor to
zoom in onto a little boy. Then, he opens the door and, slashes a pair of
newlyweds to death. The only real difference from here on is that the killer
immediately admits his crimes to the audience. He's led by his psychosis to kill
so he can figure out who killed his mother when he was a little boy.

It follows the template pretty tightly until Harrington kills his wife (in a
bridal gown, no less) and things turn weird. Keeping most of the giallo elements
intact, Bava adds in the supernatural when his wife comes back from the dead.
Oddly, in a ghost twist I'm not sure I've seen outside this movie, everybody can
see and talk to her but him. Instead, she's depicted from his perspective, in
one of his funniest visual puns, as an old handbag. When she finally does appear
to him, her unseen presence has driven him completely over the edge and as he
comes closer to the answer to his mother's killer, it becomes a race with the
police to stop him before he kills again.

There's more than a little Psycho in Hatchet for the
Honeymoon, but Bava injects his movie with his trademark style. While it
moves a little slowly at times, it's consistently fun to look at. Whether it's
the bright red blood, the garishly outfitted costumes and sets, or the surreal
waltz scenes, there are always things to keep viewers eyes on the screen. The
director knew his strengths and shows them off as well as he ever did here. This
is all complimented by the excellent score by Sante Maria Romitelli (Shoot,
Gringo...Shoot!), which accents the onscreen events quite well and is,
incidentally, my favorite score to play when I hate the score on silent film
discs.

Like much of his later work, the performances are the weakest part of
Hatchet for the Honeymoon, though not the worst you'll find. Laura Betti
is effective as the shrewish wife, no surprise given her Italian art film
pedigree, but it goes downhill from there. Stephen Forsyth is mighty stiff, but
it fits the character pretty well, and most everyone else just sort of walks
through the role. Like the struggles with the plot, these deficiencies are
outweighed greatly by the visual presentation which, again, is stunning.

While I feel like Mario Bava's work deserves more complete restorations than
is presented on Image Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Hatchet for the
Honeymoon, I can confirm that here the film does, indeed, fare better than
it ever has. The 1.78:1/1080p transfer has a realistic grain structure, great,
well-defined colors, and deep black levels, with solid detail throughout the
frame. There is some damage still present on the image, mostly in the form of
specks and blemishes. It's not that bad, but there could have been more work
done. The sound is a little below where it should be, as well. While the dialog
and musical score are pretty clear in the 2.0 Mono PCM mix, there is plenty of
background hiss to distract viewers, which is a shame. Aside from the trailer,
the only extra is an audio commentary by Bava expert Tim Lucas, who is as
detailed in this commentary as always.

Closing Statement

It isn't the most coherent or dynamic film in Mario Bava's body of work, but
Hatchet for the Honeymoon is one of his strangest and most interestingly
filmed. Colorful, surreal, and expressionistic, Bava made a work of violent
beauty, a supernatural giallo that goes down as one of the better examples of
the genre. Plus, the Blu-ray is easily good enough to recommend an upgrade, so I
walk away very happy.